Saturday, August 16, 2014

August 16 - First week as a newbie in DCPS/DC3

What an amazing week!

Monday and Tuesday I reported via Metro to my new school - Janney ES. I am one of 14 new teachers and we spent two days learning the vision of the school and how this matches with my beliefs. We took time to get to know each other. Daily we started and ended the day with a Morning Meeting/Closing Meeting. I was asked to reflect and share and after two days I felt so lucky to be in a school that matches my beliefs so well and a place where I feel valued and am heard!

Wed I met the discrict head, Chancellor Henderson and again I was impressed. I love that one of the goal of DCSP is to get kids to want to come to school, to like school! The fact that they named it as a goal is impressive to me. They aren't taking it for granted. They know things need to be in place to make people want to show up. As I returned home on Wed, I thought how much I wanted to go to work on Thursday. The Janney staff in just days created that for me!

Thursday I learned how I am part of a collaboration of DCPS schools who together will grow as professionals during our shared professional development days. Very cool!

And Friday I had time to meet with the Instructional Coach to learn the suggested order of writing units and then time to set up my classroom.

Again, I can't wait to go to school on Monday! I find out my students' names tonight as it is being posted to the school website. Then Monday I will meet the entire staff and have time to work with the 5th grade team.

I choose this school because I get to be the 5th grade writing teacher to 80 students. I get to teach the subject I know very well all day long to 4 classrooms of students. I know there are many pluses and minuses to this model but I'm excited to report back here each Saturday to share how it is going.

After a refreshing July break, I am back in the classroom - this year a 5th grade classroom at a new school called Janney in a subset of a the disctrict called DC3 which is a part of a new district for me -DCPS.

The 2014-15 school year has officially begun!!

1 comment:

  1. I'm excited that YOU are excited about starting in your new school.
    I know that your sharing will not end just because you are in a new school.
    Enjoy your first day with your students....your enthusiasm is catching and they will most definitely want to come to school to learn and share with you :)

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